heavy, because the leaves with the raised type do not lie close.
The time that one of Miss Keller's friends realizes most strongly
that she is blind is when he comes on her suddenly in the dark
and hears the rustle of her fingers across the page.

The most convenient print for the blind is braille, which has
several variations, too many, indeed--English, American, New York
Point. Miss Keller reads them all. Most educated blind people
know several, but it would save trouble if, as Miss Keller
suggests, English braille were universally adopted. The facsimile
on page xv [omitted] gives an idea of how the raised
dots look. Each character (either a letter or a special braille
contraction) is a combination made by varying in place and number
points in six possible positions. Miss Keller has a braille
writer on which she keeps notes and writes letters to her blind
friends. There are six keys, and by pressing different
combinations at a stroke (as one plays a chord on the piano) the
operator makes a character at a time in a sheet of thick paper,
and can write about half as rapidly as on a typewriter. Braille
is especially useful in making single manuscript copies of books.

Books for the blind are very limited in number. They cost a great
deal to publish and they have not a large enough sale to make
them profitable to the publisher; but there are several
institutions with special funds to pay for embossed books. Miss
Keller is more fortunate than most blind people in the kindness
of her friends who have books made especially for her, and in the
willingness of gentlemen, like Mr. E. E. Allen of the
Pennsylvania Institute for the Instruction of the Blind, to
print, as he has on several occasions, editions of books that she